December 3 2012

As a school community, we are dedicated to the values of fairness, compassion, honesty, responsibility, respect and courtesy that contribute to a positive, diverse, safe and caring learning environment.

This week rounds out the end of the first trimester of school. Boy time flies!! As you have read and or heard, some changes have been taking place in the manner in which we are reporting out on student progress. The K-5 report card now matches the language of the Common Core which is the back bone of our curriculum and in k-8 we will be reporting out separately on students behavior and work habits across all curriculum areas. Teachers have been working extremely diligently with the new curriculum format and designing instruction to move students to their next level of learning. Our focus is moving from the mastering of a finite set of grade level requirements to one of continuous improvement.

Having parent teacher conferences at the end of the trimester this year was created to assist in the transition to standards-based teaching and learning. Parent teacher conferences will be taking place December 13th and 14th. You should be receiving details from your child's teacher soon. Teachers will be sharing with you where your child is working within the curriculum and sharing the evidence that supports it.

In other school news, Basketball season has begun. If you have an opportunity to watch our teams play, please do. A concession stand will be open at games and all the proceeds go to support the 8th grade rafting trip at the end of the year. You can view the sports calendar on the school website for upcoming home games. This past week 12 students from Emerson participated in the Global Read for students in Middle and High school from around the world. The students read the book, The Queen of Water by Laura Reseau and Maria Virginia Farinango. The students participated in a book talk with the author's via tanberg at the high school. It was a wonderful experience for all involved.

In more mundane news please make sure your child has a note if they are traveling on a different bus then they do normally. Students will not be allowed on the bus without a note.

SCHOOL LUNCH

Dear Parent/Guardian,

The Conners Emerson School Food Service Department is excited to announce some upcoming enhancements to our online school meal payment service. In the coming weeks, we will be transitioning your existing MyNutrikids.com® account to a new service called mySchoolBucks®. This website provides a number of key features that you will find beneficial including:

Scheduled recurring payments

Automatic deposits when your child's account balance runs low

Extended purchase history for the past 90 days

Low balance email notifications

Until this transition occurs, you may continue to make payments through MyNutrikids.com. If you already have a MyNutrikids.com account, you will NOT need to create a new account with mySchoolBucks. Your existing login username and password will remain the same. Children that are associated with your account will also carry over to the new service.

Once the transition is complete, you will be automatically redirected to mySchoolBucks where you can begin using the new service. Parents with an existing MyNutrikids.com account will receive an introductory email from mySchoolBucks, which will provide instructions on how to use this new service.

Because we have a student with a (severe) shellfish allergy, we are a shellfish-free school.

This means that no student or staff member should bring into the school any shellfish or food containing shellfish. This includes lobster, crab, mussel, clam etc.

BUS INFORMATION

IF YOU NEED TO GET IN TOUCH WITH CYR BUS COMPANY, THEIR NUMBER IS 1-800-244-2335. THE NUMBER FOR THE BAR HARBOR POLICE DEPARTMENT IS 288-3391.

MUSIC NOTES

The Conners Winter Concert for all of grades 2, 3, and 4 (K and 1 will participate in the spring concert) will be Thursday, December 6, at 6:00. Please wear appropriate concert attire. Students will be seated with their classroom teachers upon the 5:50 arrival. If you arrive prior to 5:50, we ask that students remain with their parents. Rehearsals will take place during the school day on the 6th so please remind your child to bring his/her instrument and music to school. A delicious bake sale before and after the concert is provided by the Show Stoppers!

The TEMPO Holiday Concert will help set the spirit for the season. Your fellow classmates, Sydney Eleftheriou, Benjamin Hagle, Grace Higgins, Taki Ishimura, HanLin Jia, Thomas Korstange, Danielle LeDuc, Emily McCarthy, Olivia McCarthy, Yash Nair, and Annie Painter, are joining other area youth musicians for two concerts, one on December 8 at 7pm at the Grand in Ellsworth and a reprise on December 9 at 3 pm at Saint Saviour's in Bar Harbor. Conductors Rebecca and Ethan Edmondson have selected some lively and lovely music. Tickets are $9 for adults and $5 for children, $20 family rate at St. Saviour's only. There will be a reception of finger foods and a punch bowl in the St. Saviour's social hall following the Sunday, December 9 concert.

COMMUNITY NEWS

Volunteers are needed for the Scholastic Book Fair on December 13th from 1:30-7:30 PM and on December 14th from 8:00-12:00. Please contact Suzie Maristany at 288-9248 or suzie@prexar.com

Children's book author and illustrator Chris Van Dusen will be visiting MDI on Saturday, December 1st at the Pemetic School Auditorium at 10:00 A.M. He will also be at the Northeast Harbor Library at 1:30 P.M. Books will be available for sale to benefit IRW programs. Log on towww.islandreadersandwriters.org for more information.

Kristi Losquadro will continue her outstanding work as our Vice President.

We would like to thank Phylis Leighton for her incredible 18 yearsof service to the Bar Harbor PTSA.

Raflle Tickets are available at Stone Soup and will be sold at the Book Fair and the Winter Concert for our Stone Soup Raffle. More than $400.00 worth toys and gifts will be raffled on Dec. 15th. Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5. Contact Kristi Losquadro at 288-2882 for more information

Toy Drive

The Bar Harbor PTSA will be collecting new unwrapped toys until December 17th. Please drop off your donations in either the Conners office or Emerson office. Happy Holidays!